Lili cut off the call. Then she strode up to Julia's door, and rapped three times on it. Taking a straight-bar knuckle duster out of the pocket of her jeans, she slipped it on to her right hand, and cocked her fist.

"Just a minute!" shouted Julia from the other side. "It's 2 AM, what is it?"

Lili tensed, ready to strike.

Julia opened the door, dressed in her jeans, boots and lab coat. She'd clearly put in a long day and hadn't bothered changing. As soon as the door was open, Lili struck with snake-like speed. She slammed her fist into an unsuspecting Julia's jaw. The iron bar around her fist caught Julia squarely in the face. Julia's head whipped backward with the impact. She was unconscious before she could hit the floor. She landed with a thud.

Lili immediately handcuffed Julia, and tied a rope around her ankles. Then she picked her up with some difficulty, and hauled her out to the waiting vehicle.

Fletcher opened the door, and Lili tossed her into the back seat. Then she got in the front seat, and Fletcher took off, taking care not to squeal the tires.

After a 20 minute drive, they arrived at an old abandoned warehouse. Lili got out, and carted Julia inside, where she had made preparations. It was mostly empty inside, but there was a chain running down from the ceiling with a clasp on it, and a folding wooden table set up with various items on it. A crowbar, water, smelling salts, a cloth, the keys to the handcuffs.

"Fletcher, help me with this, would you?"

"Of course."

Lili dropped her cell phone on the table. He helped hold up Julia's body while Lili hooked the clasp around the handcuff chain. Julia dangled an inch off the ground. Standing on tiptoes, she would be able to stand, otherwise, she would hang by her arms.

Lili opened a bottle of water, and threw it in Julia's face. Julia sputtered and spit, water soaking her head and chest. She shook her head, tossing water out of her face. She opened her eyes and saw Lili standing in front of her.

"Well, well! Look who finally decided to wake up."

Julia looked around at her surroundings. "What.. what's going on? Where are we?"

"My dear", Lili said, "That is none of your concern. All you need to know is that you are about to suffer quite dearly. I'm sick of these games, Julia. And I know that you know exactly what I mean. I attack you, you attack me, back and forth, your friends get in on it... well. I'm about to up the ante a little." She drove a punch into Julia's stomach. Julia lurched with the blow. She tried to kick Lili, but then realized her legs were bound.

"Oh yeah, I thought about that. There won't be any of that." Lili got closer, confident she could do anything she want. Julia surprised her by bringing both legs up and kicking her that way. She caught Lili in the chest, and the blow knocked her over backwards. "Aungh!" Lili yelped out and she tumbled backward. She came to rest face down. Standing up, she glared at Julia. "Well, I hope you enjoyed that, because you've only made things harder on yourself now." Lili walked over to the table, and picked up a crowbar. She swung it at Julia's legs. Julia screamed in pain as the wrought iron connected with flesh and bone. Lili shook her head and went back to the table, taking up a rag. She shoved it in Julia's mouth and taped it. "You need to shut the hell up, I'm not going to listen to that while I have my fun." She punched Julia in the stomach again. The rag muffled Julia's cries of pain. "Ah, much better!" Lili taunted. She punched Julia in the stomach again. Julia's body reacted to the blow again. Lili savoured it. "The reaction of a stomach being punched is a nice one, isn't it? Muscles ripple and spasm, the jackknifing motion is very pleasing. Do it again for me, would you?" she said tantalizingly, almost purring it. Lili reared back and hooked Julia in the stomach again. "Mmmph!" Julia groaned out, muffled by the rag. Her body quivered in pain again. "That's right, Julia. More, do it some more." Lili punched again, leaving a red mark with her fist against the muscles of Julia's abs. "Here, this is just getting in the way, isn't it? Let's get rid of that." Lili took a straight razor off the table, and cut away Julia's lab coat. The now-ragged pile of fabric that used to be a wearable garment fell away from Julia's body. "So conservative, aren't we?" Lili said of Julia's undershirt. "Seriously. You really need to loosen up some." She cut away Julia's shirt, leaving her in her green sports bra and her jeans. "That's better! Now I can see the damage done... and there's nothing protecting you now..." Lili returned the razor to the table and launched a roundhouse kick into Julia's stomach. Julia exhaled hard through the rag and her body wrenched again.

Lili put the knuckle duster on again, and drew her fist back, making sure Julia could see it coming. "Good night, sweet plaything." Lili hammered Julia in the jaw, knocking her totally unconscious again. Julia's body gently swayed back and forth by her arms.

Lili lowered Julia to the floor, and undid the handcuffs, confident she'd been softened up enough to not be able to fight back. Lili poured more water on her to wake her up again. Julia woke up. Raising her head, she was caught with another knuckle duster shot, knocking her out for the third time in the last hour. "Haha, I thought I'd do that just for fun. Now I definitely came prepared, so wake up again!" Lili woke Julia up using smelling salts. She waved them under Julia's nose, and Julia inhaled sharply, then woke up with a start. She struggled to remember what had just happened. The rapid knockouts were beginning to take their toll. As Lili suspected, Julia couldn't fight back. She ripped the tape off Julia's mouth and pulled the rag out. Julia only moaned in pain. "Good, no more screaming. You were really bugging me. Now I want you to cry for me." Lili swung her leg over Julia's arm and sat down, locking her arms around Julia's face and rearing back. Julia's neck and arm were being wrenched hard. Julia could only concentrate on the white hot searing pain shooting through her neck and arm. She closed her eyes, shutting out the rest of the world. She had no idea how long she spent in that hold, time stopping completely as the seconds, minutes, hours ticked away, with nothing existing but intense burning pain. Finally, Lili released the hold. It had only been a minute or so but it felt like it had stretched on forever. Julia lay face down on the warehouse floor as Lili continued talking to her, words only half-heard as the throbbing ache in her shoulder and neck pounded away.

Lili picked up Julia, who offered no resistance. Lili hooked Julia into a fisherman suplex, like she used to do. Lili picked her up and over, slamming her hard into the floor. She lay there dazed, pain taking hold on her seemingly everywhere. "That's what that feels like! Hurts, doesn't it? It hurt like hell when you did it to me, so how do you like it? Here's a couple more things you've done to me that I plan on repaying you for." Lili heartlessly picked Julia up again. Julia could barely stand. Lili picked Julia up and fell forward in a powerslam. She wasn't strong enough to lift Julia and run with her, so she settled for that. The result was the same, as Julia smashed off the floor again. She felt like she'd been in a car accident. Julia groaned softly when Lili picked her up again. Julia couldn't stand, instead sitting on her knees. Lili hiked her up anyway, then picked her up and slammed her down in a piledriver. Julia hit the floor and lay on her back, arms and legs spread, head turned to the side, eyes closed. Lili tried to scrape her off the floor again, but Julia had been knocked unconscious with the piledriver.

Lili slapped Julia on the cheek to revive her. "Julia... wakey wakey..." Julia's eyes opened slightly. Lili gave her a hard slap, which woke her up completely. Lili looped Julia's arm around her own, hooked her with her other hand, and then hauled her to her feet, in a cobra clutch. Julia couldn't fight back, she was so sore and beaten. Lili constricted her neck with her arms, cutting off the blood flow to her brain. Julia struggled as hard as she could, which was still very weak. Fog seemed to settle in Julia's brain. Julia felt like she were in a vice grip. Her arms stopped responding to her wishes to move and hung limply. Her vision began to get patchy and cloudy. Then her eyes refused to stay open. The fight left Julia, and she passed out in Lili's choke hold. Lili held her aloft for a few seconds more, making sure Julia was unconscious again, before dropping her like a sack of potatoes.

"Actually, I need you up here again..." Lili got her arms underneath Julia, then with a mighty heave, picked her up, flipped her, and splattered the unconscious woman with a powerbomb. Julia hit with a thud and lay completely motionless. Lili retrieved the straight razor. "Now to add some insult to this severe injury..." She took the razor blade and sawed Julia's long braided hair off, cutting it loose and lopping it about four inches past her shoulders. Julia was proud of her long braids, a heritage tradition of hers, and in ten seconds, Lili had destroyed it. Lili tossed the braids out a broken window into the dumpster by the building.

Lili roused Julia from her violence-induced slumber again. Julia slowly came to. She opened her eyes, and was looking at the table. When she noticed Lili's cell phone, her eyes went wide. She had to get to that phone, it was her only chance. Pretending to be unconscious, she closed her eyes except for just a slit, so she could see. When Lili picked her up, she made her move. With a burst of energy brought on only by this fleeting opportunity, she clasped Lili's head with her hands and fell backwards on her back, driving Lili's face into her knee. Lili was momentarily knocked out, just as Julia had hoped. Not even noticing her missing braids, crawling desperately toward the table, she grabbed Lili's phone, and dialed Christie.

The phone rang... and rang... and rang...

Christie, pick up, please... I know it's early but I need you...

On the 14th ring, Christie answered groggily. "It's 3:30 AM! Who the hell-"

Christie tried not to panic. "Okay, where are you? We'll come get you ASAP!"

Julia called up the map. After thirty agonizing seconds, the map coordinates loaded. She gave them to Christie, who put them in her phone.

"This says there's a warehouse there, you're in there?"

"Yes, please- shit, Lili is coming to, I have to go! Help me!" Julia dropped Lili's phone back on the table and made it look like she was just about to reach it, so Lili wouldn't suspect the whistle had been blown.

As she had hoped, Lili didn't know. She thought Julia was only about to reach it. "My phone! Oh no you fucking don't!" Lili dashed across the room and cut Julia off from the phone, pocketing it. Had Lili not been preoccupied, she might have noticed the warmth of it from Julia's face and hands, but she had shoved it in her pocket too fast. Lili kneed Julia in the broken jaw. Her head whipped back and she passed out again. Lili hooked the handcuffs back on her, and dragged her over the the ceiling clamp. She re-hooked the handcuffs to it, and raised Julia back up. Then she waved more smelling salts in her face, The acrid smell of ammonia stirred her. Lili held them a little longer, until she was certain Julia was conscious. Julia could barely raise her head. Her mouth hung open, her jaw broken from the knuckle duster aided punches to her face. Lili took the straight razor and drew it across Julia's head, slicing her open. Blood welled up and ran down her face. Lili smeared it across her face with the rag that had previously been shoved in her mouth. She took the razor and very slowly made a cut across Julia's stomach muscles with it, savouring the long, drawn out moan of pain she was eliciting. Julia could only moan, not having the strength required to scream.

"I got something else for you! Oh, we're not done yet!" Lili picked the crowbar up off the table. Julia's eyes widened in dread. Lili sunk the crowbar into Julia's stomach, drawing a heave and a retch. Lili swung for the fences again. Julia's body spasmed in reaction again. She felt like she was going to be sick. Lili taunted her, brushing her face with it. Then she blasted Julia with it again. This time Julia did vomit on the floor, losing her supper from the previous night in reaction to her stomach being nearly caved in by the crowbar.

"Ooh, looks like someone made a mess!" As Lili approached her again, Julia licked the vomit off her lips, and spit it in Lili's face.

"Oh God, yuck! Shit! Fuck!" Lili cried out in disgust as it hit her under the eye. "Fucking hell! YUCK! EW!" Lili wiped it off her fave with the remaining clean part of the bloody, saliva-soaked rag on the table. "Ugh! You just don't know when to quit!" Lili stepped behind Julia and swung the crowbar into her back. Julia's spine tingled in response, and she arched backward. Lili mercilessly beat Julia around the upper body with the crowbar, causing terrible bruising all over the place. Julia hung from the ceiling, dangling by her wrists, head hanging.

Lili hooked the crowbar over a belt buckle, and then retrieved a paper bag from the table. She pulled a bottle of scotch out of it and a funnel. She opened the bottle and popped the cork.

"I'd like to propose a toast, Julia... to the wonderful time we've spent together this fine early morning. Have a drink!" Lili shoved the funnel into Julia's mouth, wrapped her arms around Julia to keep her in place, and began to pour the contents of the bottle down her throat. The straight alcohol burned slightly, waking Julia more. She tried to spit it out, but the funnel wouldn't let her, and her swallow reflex took over. Lili forced the entire bottle of scotch down Julia's throat. By the time she was finished, Julia was already drunk, and would only get more so as she metabolized the alcohol. Then Lili took the crowbar and slammed it into the side of Julia's head, who blacked out instantly.

Lili lowered Julia to the floor, and unhooked the handcuffs. Then she swept everything off the table. With one swift motion, Lili picked Julia up under the legs, pivoted, and slammed her onto the wooden table, splintering it. The crunching of the wood echoed throughout the cavernous, empty warehouse.

Lili heard a car slam its brakes. It was close. Too close. She realized someone was here, probably for Julia.

"Shit! How the fuck did anyone know I was here?" She glared at the unconscious, bleeding Julia. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she checked the call log.

"You bitch..." She hit Julia in the stomach once more with the crowbar, then darted to the window. Throwing herself out feet first to drop kick any broken glass away, she got out just as the warehouse doors were coming up. Christie, Xiaoyu and Asuka quickly saw the scene. "Julia! Oh my God!" They sprinted over to her, which gave Lili her escape route. She ran full tilt for her car and jumped in. "Fletcher, get the fuck out of here, now! Good thing these are tinted windows, they didn't notice you! GO!" The car's tires squealed as the car peeled out. The three looked back at it. "Damn it! I bet Lili was in that car!" Christie said.

They turned their attention back to Julia. "We've got to get her to a hospital, fast. Call an ambulance for her!" Christie handed Asuka her phone. She sat on the floor, cradling Julia, taking her by the hand. "Julia... Julia, can you hear me? Julia... we're here, Julia. We're here..."

Even though Julia was unconscious, Christie could swear Julia squeezed her hand ever so slightly.

The whole "Lili forces a bottle of hard liquor down Julia's throat" thing is one of those little unplanned tidbits I cook up. Like I always say, I know where to start and where to end, getting there is done on the fly. It's a style that works for me. It's probably one of the top 5 harshest things I've ever written in a story.

Brutal. Just brutal. I can tell that you had some fun writing this, didn't you? That usually makes for the best stories.

The initial belly punching sequence was good. I'm usually not a fan of belly torture, especially when it's just punches, but I liked the image you constructed of Julia hanging helplessly with her hands over her head and her stomach muscles quivering. Nice work.

It was also neat to see the tables turned on Julia. It was a bit strange imagining the diminutive Lili throwing Julia around, but you did mention that she had trouble lifting her up. She really got a taste of her own medicine. The whole beat down was intense. I don't think smelling salts would have done the trick after Julia suffers what appears to have been multiple concussions!

By the way, that compound really needs to up it's security. The women are constantly just roaming freely beating the hell out of each other! Or maybe they should just stop opening their doors in the wee hours of the morning...